AuroraSeeGuide
Aurora photography settings
Your phone or camera will almost always see more colour than your eyes do. A faint grey glow on the horizon can turn out green and pink once you get the settings right.
Written by the AuroraSee team · Brisbane, Australia · Updated 29 July 2026
On a phone
Use Night Mode (iPhone) or Night/Pro mode (Android) and let it use the longest exposure it offers. Rest the phone on something solid: a wall, fence post, or a small tripod. Any shake blurs a long exposure. Turn the flash off. Tap the farthest point in frame (a distant light or star) to focus, then don’t touch the screen again until the shutter finishes.
On a camera
Manual mode, wide-angle lens. Aperture as wide as it goes (f/1.4 to f/2.8). ISO 800 to 3200 depending on how faint the glow is. Shutter 5 to 15 seconds: shorter avoids blurring fast-moving beams, longer pulls in more colour on a faint night. Switch autofocus off, focus manually on a bright star or distant light, and leave it there. Shoot RAW if you can, there’s more to recover in post than a JPEG keeps. A tripod and a 2-second timer (or remote shutter) stop your own hands from blurring the shot.
Framing
From Australia and New Zealand the aurora sits low as vertical beams rising from the horizon, not overhead curtains. Put the horizon in the lower third of the frame and leave plenty of sky above it, that’s where the beams will show up. A strong foreground silhouette (trees, a coastline, a mountain) gives the shot scale.
FAQ
Common questions
FAQ
Common questions
How do I photograph the aurora?
Manual mode, wide-angle lens, the widest aperture your lens has, ISO 800 to 3200, and a 5 to 15 second shutter, focused manually on a distant star. See the full camera settings above.
How do I capture the aurora on an iPhone?
Use Night Mode and let it run its longest exposure. Rest the phone on something solid so it doesn't blur, turn off the flash, and tap the farthest point in frame to focus before the shutter starts. See the phone settings above for the full walkthrough.